VIASPACE Press Release

VIASPACE Achieving Objectives in Security Sector and Expanding Into New Industries

04/17/2008

PASADENA, CA -April 17, 2008-- VIASPACE Inc. (OTCBB: VSPC) today announced the company is advancing on its objectives in the global market for defense and commercial security solutions and targeting additional opportunities in new industries. VIASPACE's Security division is fulfilling key customer contracts, securing additional deals, offering a new line of perimeter security solutions, targeting new industries, and globalizing operations with customers and teaming partners in the United States, Middle East and Asia.

VIASPACE Security has teamed with a major radar/IR hardware platform manufacturer in the perimeter security sector to resell and add value to the Area Intrusion Monitoring System (AIMS) family of radar security surveillance solutions. The technology is used to monitor critical infrastructure in airports, seaports, borders, military installations and other sensitive perimeters.

VIASPACE is pursuing multiple opportunities to build on the AIMS platform utilizing its SHINE sensor fusion and inference engine technology to create new leading edge perimeter security solutions. The company is engaged with and developing demonstrations for a number of potential customers.

VIASPACE Security is quickly moving forward with short to medium term sales opportunities for these advanced perimeter security solutions. A demonstration unit had been ordered, and the company has added key software and hardware staff to support these efforts. The company is in talks with owners of high profile infrastructure including major international airports, seaports and nuclear power plants and has received interest from the U.S. Armed Forces. VIASPACE is also working with a number of major players in the aerospace and defense industries including companies equivalent in size and systems integration capability to Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and SAIC. In January VIASPACE Security received a new blanket purchase agreement from the Inter local Purchasing System (TIPS) and Texas-Arkansas Purchasing System (TAPS), making the company eligible to sell to 1500+ local, regional and state government authorities in Texas and Arkansas. The company is also teaming with Raytheon Company's Network Centric Systems on security and surveillance applications.

VIASPACE Security is currently executing on contracts for key customers. The company has been awarded a contract for IED technology. As announced, VIASPACE Security has been selected to provide the overall software architecture and development of specific algorithms and operational software needed for IED detection in this new program. VIASPACE Security recently fulfilled its Phase II contract from L3 Communications for software architecture integration of software and hardware and final testing for the Advanced Container Security Device (ACSD) program, which is funded by the US Department of Homeland Security. The container breach detection systems have been delivered and are being tested by DHS. VIASPACE twice received additional funding and expanded its role in Phase II and looks forward to the next phase of the program.

VIASPACE Security is also branching out into new industries. The company recently commissioned a comprehensive market analysis to identify the most prospective and immediate customers and applications for its SHINE technology. Sensor fusion combines large volumes of data and inferences derived from multiple sources and sensors to generate reliable decision support information in applications where speed, accuracy and ease of deployment are critical.

VIASPACE's SHINE sensor fusion inference engine can process 1,500+ billion rules per second on desktop class computer processors-dramatically outperforming other comparable commercial technology-and is the only inference engine small enough to be deployed on a chip.

The market study validated SHINE's value in a wide range of applications including diagnostics and prognostics, factory automation and plant management, onboard automotive sensors, aviation sensors, global positioning systems, mobile devices, gaming, switching and routing systems and medical monitoring. VIASPACE is also working to develop several solutions for major corporations outside the United States, utilizing its increased staff and agents in Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere.

VIASPACE CEO Dr. Carl Kukkonen commented: "Our VIASPACE Security division is working hard to achieve rapid growth. We are successfully executing on our existing defense and homeland security contracts and actively negotiating for others. Adding the AIMS perimeter security platform to our sales arsenal provides VIASPACE with an additional revenue stream, a market-tested platform on which to build game changing perimeter security solutions, and an existing customer base to target. We are also expanding into growing industries where our proprietary inference engine and sensor fusion technologies can provide significant competitive advantage for customers."

Dr. Kukkonen continued: "While we are bound by confidentiality agreements that prevent us from disclosing names and specifics at this time, VIASPACE is engaged with important potential customers and teaming partners in the U.S., Japan, China, Malaysia, Taiwan and the Middle East. We are extremely pleased with the interest and feedback VIASPACE technology solutions have generated among some very major players in the security and other industries and are moving forward to seize these opportunities."

About VIASPACE: Originally founded in 1998 with the objective of transforming proven space and defense technologies from NASA and the Department of Defense into hardware and software solutions that solve today's complex problems, VIASPACE benefits from important patent and software licenses from Caltech, which manages NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.For more information, please visit our website at www.VIASPACE.com. For investor relations contact Dr. Jan Vandersande, Director of Communications, at 800-517-8050 or IR@VIASPACE.com. For media relations contact Dr. Carl Kukkonen, CEO, at 626-768-3360.

-----------------------------This news release includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements relate to future events or our future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Such factors include the risks outlined in our periodic filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-KSB, for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2007, as well as general economic and business conditions, the ability to acquire and develop specific projects and technologies, the ability to fund operations, changes in consumer and business consumption habits, and other factors over which VIASPACE has little or no control.